Copyright: Its History and Its Law. Bowker Richard Rogers

be wise or foolish, accurate or inaccurate, of literary merit, or of no merit whatever."

      "Book" definitions

      The word "book" covers the great body of copyright property, and has been many times the subject of judicial construction giving the most comprehensive meaning to the term. The English judges early held that protection "could not depend upon the form of the publication"; "that a composition on a single sheet might well be a book within the meaning of the legislature"; and that "any composition, whether large or small, is a book within the meaning of this act." The English law of 1842 afterward specifically construed the word "book" "to mean and include every volume, part or division of a volume, pamphlet, sheet of letterpress, sheet of music, map, chart or plan, separately published." The law of the United States makes no definition of the term, except by specifically including as books "composite and cyclopædic works, directories, gazetteers, and other compilations"; but our judges have agreed with the English view, Judge Thompson holding, in 1828, in Clayton v. Stone, that a "book" may be printed "only on one sheet," and that "the literary property intended to be protected by the Act is not to be determined by the size, form or shape … but by the subject-matter," and Judge Leavitt, in 1862, in Drury v. Ewing, that a diagram for cutting dresses, with directions, printed on a single sheet, being "the product of thought and mental toil," was a "book" within the benefit of the law.

      Inclusions adjudicated

      In fact, though all English and American statutes have been avowedly for "the encouragement of learning" and "the progress of science and useful arts," the courts have construed the laws to cover in the widest sense any "useful book." The courts have indeed denied copyright protection only to works having absolutely no literary quality, such as advertisements (unless they contain original literary matter) and advertising cuts, labels, blank books, or blank forms. Even booksellers' and other trade catalogues, having descriptive notes or distinctive arrangement and combination, can be copyrighted. Compilations of existing materials, from common sources, arranged and combined in an original and useful form, receive the same protection as wholly original matter. Drone schedules English or American judicial constructions extending this principle to: (1) general miscellaneous compilations; (2) annotations consisting of common materials; (3) dictionaries; (4) books of chronology; (5) gazetteers; (6) itineraries, road and guide books; (7) directories; (8) maps and charts; (9) calendars; (10) catalogues; (11) mathematical tables; (12) a list of hounds; (13) abstracts of titles to lands; and collections of (14) statistics, (15) statutory forms, (16) recipes, and (17) designs – several of which classes are now specifically included in the new American statute. Later decisions have confirmed several of these categories and have specified also (18) trotting records; (19) racing charts; (20) newspaper reports of public speeches; (21) telegraphic codes; (22) mining reports; (23) a tradesman's alphabetical list of wares; (24) a list of public documents; (25) mathematical calculations; (26) legal forms; (27) an application form for membership; (28) complications of railroad time-tables; (29) commercial circulars, protected by a Canadian decision; (30) school registers, and (31) stud book list of horses.

      Exclusions adjudicated

      On the other hand, the courts have declined to include as proper subjects of copyright (a) methods or plans, as for compiling credit-ratings or systems, as in the case of (b) shorthand, (c) trading stamps or coupons as described in a copyrighted advertising pamphlet, or (d) of letter-file indexes; (e) a sleeve pattern chart; (f) the face of a barometer; (g) a railway ticket designed for punching; (h) a day's sporting tips; (i) blank books; or (j) blank forms, as a cricket score-card; and (k) monograms.

      Inclusions defined

      In the new Rules and Regulations of the Copyright Office promulgated as approved by the Librarian of Congress in 1910 as Bulletin No. 15, it is said as to books:

      "(4, a) Books.– This term includes all printed literary works (except dramatic compositions) whether published in the ordinary shape of a book or pamphlet, or printed as a leaflet, card, or single page. The term 'book' as used in the law includes tabulated forms of information, frequently called charts; tables of figures showing the results of mathematical computations such as logarithmic tables; interest, cost, and wage tables, etc., single poems, and the words of a song when printed and published without music; librettos; descriptions of moving pictures or spectacles; encyclopædias; catalogues; directories; gazetteers and similar compilations; circulars or folders containing information in the form of reading matter other than mere lists of articles, names and addresses, and literary contributions to periodicals or newspapers."

      Exclusions defined

      On the other hand, definitions are made negatively that:

      "(5) The term 'book' can not be applied to —

      "Blank books for use in business or in carrying out any system of transacting affairs, such as record books, account books, memorandum books, diaries or journals, bank deposit and check books; forms of contracts or leases which do not contain original copyrightable matter; coupons; forms for use in commercial, legal, or financial transactions, which are wholly or partly blank and whose value lies in their usefulness and not in their merit as literary compositions.

      "Directions on scales, or dials, or mathematical or other instruments; puzzles; games; rebuses; labels; wrappers; formulæ on boxes, bottles, and other receptacles of articles for sale or meant to accompany such articles.

      "Advertisements or catalogues which merely set forth the names, prices, and places where articles are for sale.

      "Prefaces or other introductory matter to works not themselves entitled to copyright protection, such as blank books.

      "Calendars are not capable of registration as such, but if they contain copyrightable reading matter or pictures they may be registered either as 'books' or as 'prints' according to the nature of the copyrightable matter."

      The Rules also make the following negative definitions:

      "(12) No copyright exists in toys, games, dolls, advertising novelties, instruments or tools of any kind, glassware, embroideries, garments, laces, woven fabrics, or any similar articles."

      The definition of other classes of subject-matter given in the new Rules and Regulations of the Copyright Office, including that of maps, will be found in the chapters on dramatic and musical copyright and on artistic copyright.

      Blank books

      In the case of Everson v. Young, then Librarian of Congress, Judge Cole, of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, in 1889, refused a mandamus against the copyright officer while admitting that "the librarian had no discretion" on the ground that mandamus "will not be used to order a vain thing to be done" and that a blank book "containing not a single English sentence" is not a subject of copyright.

      "The copyright statutes," as is said in Circular Letter no. 32 of the Copyright Office, "in designating the classes of articles which may be registered in this office do not mention blank forms or blank books. The United States courts which have jurisdiction in cases arising under the copyright laws have held that blank forms or blank books or similar articles for use in themselves are not subject to copyright, and hence are not registrable in this office. A bill was introduced in Congress in 1904 proposing to extend the protection of the copyright law to vouchers, certificates, or other business forms, wholly or partly printed. But the measure was not favorably acted upon and did not become law." This exclusion does not refer to such publications as an insurance policy or a legal document, on which blank spaces are to be filled in, which are accepted as proper subject-matter for copyright by the Copyright Office.

      Combinations and arrangements

      The copyright under certain categories above scheduled may be in the combination and arrangement only, or it may be also in any original material included with other material. Quantity is not an essential element in copyright so much as "substantial importance." An English court protected a passage of only sixty words.

      Advertisements

      In respect to advertisements and advertising matter as such, the new American code is silent, and court decisions, mostly English, have been contradictory. In 1863 Vice-Chancellor Page Wood, in Hotten v.